Dying Day, Dying Wish
by Enigmatic Tathren
Summary: Someone is still after Jeff’s career and the danger to those involved is obvious. As he learns to trust Matt again in the midst of vicious attacks and a frantic search, Jeff beings to realize that despite their attempts the enemy might have won anyway.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

**A/N: -cracks knuckles- Okay then, let's get started… Don't start with this story, the series starts with **_**Time Withers All**_**. Like the others, this is not kayfabe compliant, takes place before the 2008 draft only with Matt on Raw, and more info can be found on my profile. Also, this is the LAST story in the series! –sniff- Hopefully it'll be a good ending, so sit back and enjoy the ride!**

Jeff sat by his brother's bed, watching him sleep while guilt ate away at him. Though the doctor said that the concussion wasn't severe and Matt was only in the hospital for the night to play it safe, it still boiled down to the fact that Jeff put him there- and he wasn't going to be getting over that guilt anytime soon.

Jeff sighed, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. What he needed to do was find someway to explain everything to Matt that didn't result in his brother storming away from him at the first possible opportunity. Scratch that- the first thing he needed to do was figure out if Matt was still willing to forgive him. After all, his brother had barely even noticed that he was around when he was awake; for all Jeff knew, he hated him after the match. Not that he could really blame Matt, though.

_And then there's still the matter of the explanation, _Jeff thought._ Somehow I don't think a simple "It was for your own good!" will cut it._

That was the problem, though. There was no simple explanation for what he had done to his brother, but he didn't want to go into a lengthy one, either. All he wanted was to go back to the way things were before and do his best to forget the mess he had managed to create in the past few weeks.

Jeff shifted in his chair and winced as his back throbbed in protest. In the rush to take care of Matt any concern over Jeff's back had been quickly forgotten, though that was fine by him. It was just sore, just a little bit of strain from his match with Hunter and then the falls when he was fighting Matt. He couldn't really blame anyone, though; in all the excitement since Wrestlemania his back injury had been completely forgotten. Besides, all he needed was some rest and it would be fine.

Matt shifted on the bed and Jeff froze, watching his brother nervously. He prayed that Matt wouldn't wake up because he was nowhere even close to coming up with an excuse for what happened. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until Matt slowly opened his eyes, frowning slightly as he looked around to see where he was.

"You're at the hospital," Jeff said softly. Matt flinched at the sound of his voice and cautiously glanced over at his brother. _Of course, he probably expects me to start tormenting him again._ Jeff felt sick as he realized just how much Matt distrusted him. "I'm…" He stopped. What could he say? I'm not going to hurt you- again? He couldn't make that promise. I'm not going to leave? That would probably just scare Matt even more. I'm sorry? It was a bit late for that.

Jeff stood up abruptly. What the hell was he doing here? Matt wasn't going to want him around, not after what he had just done to him. It would be better if he just left now and stopped messing up his brother's life. He looked down at the floor and quickly but quietly made his way over towards the door.

"No…"

Jeff paused for a moment by the door. The plea was soft and he wasn't sure if he had heard it. Every bone in his body was still screaming at him to keep walking, but the quiet command had brought back images of Matt lying in the ring, broken and in pain. If his brother wanted him to stay, he couldn't walk away. He just couldn't.

"Jeff…?"

Jeff slowly turned around, both needing and afraid to know what would happen next. "Yeah?" His voice was soft and he couldn't quite bring himself to meet his brother's eyes. Though he had been willing to risk their relationship before, a rejection now would hurt worse than anything else.

"Don't leave."

Jeff shook his head. "Matt, I… do you even remember what happened?"

"Yeah," he said in a slightly hoarse voice. "You changed your mind. Something happened in the ring and you just stopped pretending that you didn't believe me. You carried me to the back and stayed with me until now… and I want to know why."

Jeff shook his head. He was not ready to have this conversation. "Matt…"

"Damnit, Jeff, this isn't open for discussion!" Matt snapped. "You're probably feeling guilty as hell. Scratch that- you _are_ feeling guilty as hell, considering you were just about to sneak out of here! So please, just tell me what happened during the match."

Jeff took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "What happened was that I realized that I was hurting you more than I was helping you."

"Wait, _what_!?"

"Never mind," Jeff muttered. "I've said too much already." With that he turned and quickly walked out of the room, ignoring Matt's pleas for him to stay.

XXXXX

"Do you have someone you can call to pick you up?"

Matt sighed. He had just been released from the hospital, but was still sore and tired. Now, after his conversation- or rather, lack thereof- with his brother, the last thing he wanted to do was figure out who could pick him up from the hospital. "I'll just call a cab," he finally muttered.

"Are you sure?"

"No, that won't be necessary." Both Matt and the nurse turned around to see Jeff walking towards them. "I'm his brother; I'll be taking him back to the hotel." Matt let Jeff steer him away from the nurse and out of the hospital. "I hope you don't mind walking," Jeff said, his voice almost apologetic. "It's not that far and I've already returned the rental."

"It's not a problem." But it was a problem. Maybe not the walk back to the hotel, but the whole situation was a problem. He was too afraid to speak up, though, sure that if he said something Jeff would run. Matt had spent the last month without a brother and he didn't want that to continue now.

True to his word the walk was short and, in no time, they had arrived at Matt's hotel room. "Here, I grabbed your key from your bag," Jeff said as he fished it out of his pocket and handed it over. Matt unlocked the door and Jeff pushed past him into the room.

"You need to get packed up now. The rest of the crew flew out earlier and our flight leaves in…" he checked his watch. "An hour and a half. We can swing by my room to pick up my stuff on our way out."

"No."

Jeff looked surprised. "What do you mean, no?"

"I mean I'm not packing until you explain what happened during the match yesterday!"

Jeff sighed. His first reaction was to refuse, but he knew that if they delayed anymore they'd risk missing Raw and he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize Matt's career again. "Fine," he said. "You pack, I'll talk."

Matt hesitated for a moment before nodding and grabbing his bag to start packing.

Jeff paused for a moment before starting. "That night, after Wrestlemania, I… I didn't know what to think. There was the video in front of me, but I also kept thinking of reasons why you could've been the one to start everything. It was all just stupid, meaningless comments you had made but still, they added up. So at first I was angry at you. Then the anger started to wear off and I wasn't sure what to think anymore. So I had Vince make that match. I figured if you were guilty it was what you deserved, but if you weren't then at least you wouldn't be around me any more."

"What are you talking about?"

Jeff frowned. "What?"

"Well, you said _at least you wouldn't be around me anymore_. That implies concern for me, instead of concern for yourself," Matt explained. "So why were you concerned for me?"

Jeff shook his head. "Does it matter?"

"Yes, it does! It matters because I need to know why you did what you did in order to know where we go from here!"

"Can't we just go back to the way things were?"

Matt snorted. "Do you really think we can?" he asked.

Jeff sighed. "I can hope, can't I?"

The room was silent for a moment before Matt spoke again. "Where do we go from here?" he asked softly. "Do you still think it would be a good idea for me to not be around you?"

"Honestly? Yes," Jeff said. "But I also know that that wouldn't work."

Matt exhaled slowly. He wanted to know why Jeff thought he was such a horrible influence, but he didn't dare. He no longer knew where their boundaries were and he didn't want to start finding out now. "So what, then? What happens now? What do we tell the fans? Vince? Do we go back to looking for whoever set this up?"

"No." The word was harsh and Matt flinched. "You are not going to go back to _that_."

"Wait… _I'm_ not? What about you?"

"Does it matter what I do?"

"Goddamnit, Jeff, yes it does!" Matt knew that ne needed to be careful- _no boundaries anymore, gotta remember that_- but he was sick of Jeff making these cryptic distinctions between them. "Why the hell does it matter if I help or not?"

"Because I'm not going to let you throw your career away for me again!"

Matt was stunned. He hadn't expected _that_. "Jeff… What do you mean?"

Jeff sighed. There was no point in trying to step around it anymore. "You've always put your career on hold for me, you've always cleaned up my messes for me. When I hurt my back you took almost an entire year off to help me. Then you allowed yourself to get roped into trying to figure out who was hurting me. After _that_ you were still working with me and I hurt you. I don't want you to sacrifice your life for me anymore."

"Jeff, you're my brother. Do you really think my career means more to me than you do?" Matt shook his head. "You really don't know me at all, do you?"

Jeff flinched. He knew the question was meant as a bit of a joke, but it was true. He _didn't_ know Matt at all. If he truly knew him he wouldn't have thought that he was the one who hurt him. He would've realized that no matter what he did he couldn't keep him from trying to help. If he knew Matt, they wouldn't have been in the situation they were in now.

"No," he said softly. "I guess I don't."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

**A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've been swamped with work, plus I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go with this chapter. But its spring break now so hopefully I'll be able to get another chapter up quicker! Also, I find it highly ironic that I wrote most of this on April 5****th****, considering what one of the Wrestlemania matches is going to be… **

"Don't worry. No one's going to do anything."

Jeff nodded but didn't get out of the car. He stayed where he was, hands gripping the wheel tight, eyes fixed on the arena in front of him. Matt might think that everyone would be _thrilled_ that the two of them were on good terms again, but Jeff knew better. Most of them would be mistrustful, at best. They'd assume that he only pretended to forgive his brother so that he could hurt him even more deeply later.

"C'mon, Jeff, it doesn't matter what they think," Matt pleaded. He knew his brother was expecting the entire locker room to shun him, but it wasn't like Jeff to let that hold him back. He had changed during the last few weeks and Matt had been too distracted by Jeff's fake-anger towards him to notice.

Matt could say that, but the truth was, it did matter. Jeff didn't want to have to spend the rest of his career dreading his arrival at the arena out of fear of how his coworkers would treat him that day. "It does matter," he said quietly. "You wouldn't know what its like to walk into the arena knowing that you're just going to be shunned and hated by everyone."

"That may be true, but did you ever stop to think about those fans that were cheering for you? Or those coworkers who supported you? Don't forget that I was the one who was framed here. How do you think they felt about me?"

_Oh crap._ "Matt, I'm-"

Matt cut him off. "It doesn't matter."

The car was silent. _It does matter, Matt_, Jeff thinks, stealing a glance over at his brother. Matt was looking at the arena, but it was easy to see that his thoughts were elsewhere. _What did you go through during the past four months that I don't know about? Who on the roster gave you a hard time? How bad were your problems with the fans? And why won't you tell me any of this? We don't need anymore secrets between us…_But Jeff didn't say any of that aloud. He was still afraid of accidentally pushing his brother too far and, once again, losing him. He wasn't going to risk that now.

"We really do need to go in." Matt's voice interrupted his thoughts. Jeff nodded and, after only a split second of hesitation, got of the car.

When they walked into the arena they were met with silence as all conversations temporarily paused. Their coworkers stared at them as they passed, some looking happy others mistrustful. Very few of them looks outwardly angry, for which both Matt and Jeff were very thankful.

"Matt! Jeff!" The sudden shout caused both Hardys to start as they turned to see Shawn walking towards them. "Glad to see you two on speaking terms again," he said. "I just wanted to remind you that you should probably get to Vince as soon as humanly possible. You know he's going to want to talk to you before the show."

Matt knew that, though they did need to talk to Vince, Shawn was intentionally providing them an excuse to get away from their coworkers, at least for a little while. "Thanks for reminding us, Shawn," he said. "We'll go see him now."

The conversations started up again as Matt and Jeff walked away, a dull murmur of voices in the background, though it wasn't hard to guess what- or rather, who- they were talking about. They were lucky and didn't run into anyone on their way to Vince's office. Matt knocked on the door and, after receiving permission to enter, opened it and walked in.

"Oh. You two." Jeff winced. It certainly wasn't the best reception they'd ever gotten from their boss, but it could've been worse. "Well, sit down. I have to say, I am surprised that I didn't have to send someone to look for you for once."

"We figured we should probably see you right away, sir," Matt said.

Vince nodded. "I'm assuming that you two have reconciled?" Matt and Jeff nodded. "What are your plans now? Creative won't go anywhere near this mess so I need to know what you're going to do. You need to talk to the fans tonight, but what about in the long run? Are you going to go back to your hunt?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Well which is it?" Vince snapped. "I don't have all night, you know!"

"Matt, you know I don't want you to waste your career for my sake anymore," Jeff said softly.

"And I told you, I don't care if you feel that way. You're my brother and I'd do anything for you," Matt responded.

Vince sighed. "Look, just as long as you know what you're going to tell the fans tonight you're free to go. Just let me know by next week what I'm supposed to tell Creative about your immediate future storylines."

Matt and Jeff nodded, stood up, and left his office. They were silent, neither of them quite wanting to start an argument when things were still delicate between them, but they both knew that they needed to decide what they were going to do.

"Hey, guys," Maria said as she walked over to them, a huge smile on her face. "I'm so happy that you two are talking again! Listen, I just wanted to let you know that you're going to be going out after the first match, so make sure you're ready!"

"Thanks, Maria," Matt said.

"No problem! Like I said, I'm just glad that you two aren't fighting anymore!" She grinned at the two Hardys before walking away.

Jeff chuckled. "Glad to see at least one person is happy that we're not fighting."

Before Matt could respond, a voice behind them said, "Jeff, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Jeff frowned and turned around, sure that he was hearing things. To his surprise, he wasn't. Standing just a short ways behind them was Hunter. "I'll be here if you need anything," Matt said quietly. Jeff nodded. Neither of them had forgotten the match the week before, or what had led up to it.

Jeff walked back to where Hunter was standing. "What do you want?"

Hunter sighed. "I… I wanted to apologize for how I acted last week. I don't know why you did what you did, but it was easy to tell that you hated having to fight him and it's obvious that you care about him enough to have a good reason for doing what you did."

Jeff stared at him. It wasn't like Hunter to apologize for things like that. "Thanks," he said. "It means a lot that you're willing to apologize for last week."

Hunter nodded. "How's your back doing?" he asked. "I wasn't exactly going easy on you last week and you took some bad falls during your match last night…"

_So that's why he apologized. He'd feel like shit if he screwed up my back and cost me my career. _Jeff glanced back at Matt. "It hurts like hell," he said quietly. "I haven't had a chance to get it checked out, but I doubt it's anything more than the usual strain of a couple of rough matches. I should be feeling better in no time."

"Just take it easy. You know that it's not a good idea to try to work through back injuries. Maybe ask Vince if you can work some tag matches with Matt for awhile, just until it gets better."

Jeff nodded. "Yeah, I might do that. Thanks."

"Sorry to interrupt, but we're going to be going out soon, Jeff," Matt said as he came over to where his brother and Hunter were standing.

"Alright," Jeff said. "Nice talking to you, Hunter."

"Yeah. And remember what I told you," Hunter said. He nodded to Matt before turning around and walking away.

"What did he want?" Matt asked as him and Jeff began walking in the opposite direction.

"Just to apologize for what happened last week," Jeff said.

"Seriously? That's not like him at all…" Matt could sense that there was something Jeff wasn't telling him, but he didn't want to pry. "Anyway, what are we going to say when we go out there? Or are we just going to wing it?"

Jeff shrugged. "I need to give some explanation as to what I did and we should reassure them that we're on speaking terms again."

"What about a vague idea for what we'll be doing in the future?" Matt asked. "Something to just let them know that we aren't continuing the investigation now, but it's a possibility for the future."

Jeff frowned, but knew that it would be hopeless to try to convince his brother to drop is completely right now. "Alright," he said. "And, if you don't mind, I was thinking about tagging for a little while. Just so the fans know for sure that we're working together." He hated to hold his brother back even more, but the fans would need concrete proof that they had reconciled- the fact that his back would get a slight break was just a bonus. At least, that's what he told himself.

Matt nodded. "I was actually thinking about that myself," he said. "Besides, you know that Vince would probably just force us into tag matches anyway."

"You two are up now," one of the backstage employees told them. "Whose music are we playing?"

"Jeff's," Matt said. Jeff looked at him quizzically at the employee relayed the message to the production truck. "What? We always play your music when we go out together."

Jeff couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face at those words. His music echoed throughout the arena. "Well, come on then, let's get this show on the road!"

The two of them ran out into the arena and the fans went wild at the sight of both of them together again. They made their way down to the ring and did their usual poses. Jeff grabbed two mics and passed one to his brother before pausing for a moment to listen to the crowd. It was amazing how those who had been booing them the night before were now back to their usual excitement at seeing the two Hardys together again.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation for what's been going on the past few weeks," Jeff finally said. "The fact is, at first I did think that Matt was the one who hurt me and I was angry at him. Then, I began to doubt the validity of the video, but I realized that if I told Matt that he would only want to resume the investigation and I didn't want my brother to put his career on hold for my sake anymore. So I began to purposefully push him away. I wasn't thinking straight and I thought that that would protect his career. But I couldn't do it."

He paused and motioned to the TitanTron, where the end of the match the night before was playing.

"Jeff explained all of this to me and, while I don't agree with what he did, I understand why he did it," Matt said. "And I forgive him." He pulled Jeff into a quick hug as the fans cheered.

"We're going to be tagging again for awhile, and as of right now we're unsure as to whether we're going to continue the investigation, but right now that's not high on our list of things to do," Jeff finished. "Right now, we're just glad to be on the same side once more again and we're going to kick some ass as a tag team again!"

Jeff dropped his mic and rolled out of the ring, followed by Matt. The promo was short, but it got the point across without feeding the fans promises they couldn't keep.

Since neither of them were going to be needed later on in the show, they decided to head back to the hotel early.

"What's that?" Jeff asked as they made their way over to their car. Stuck underneath one of the windshield wipers was a white envelope.

Matt frowned. "I have no idea." He grabbed it and cautiously opened it. There was a single piece of paper inside, with one sentence in an unfamiliar handwriting.

_Don't think this is over. _


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own any recognizable person.**

**A/N: As promised, here's the next update! I think this holds the record for quickest update for any of my stories, ha! Also, I was going back and rereading the earlier stories in this series, which is why you're going to start getting obscure references to things mentioned earlier. Just for fun, really, it doesn't matter if you remember them or not.**

**Also, I have enabled anonymous reviews. I didn't realize that I had it set so it wouldn't allow them and I apologize if this has caused anyone any problems. **

"Matt? Matt, what is it?" Jeff asked. Matt's blood had drained from his face and his hand was starting to shake. "Damnit, Matt, what's going on?"

"Get in the car." Matt's voice was quiet, but didn't offer any room for negotiations. "I'll explain on the way to the hotel, just please, get in the car."

Jeff hesitated for only a moment but the look on his brother's face was enough to get him moving. He quickly climbed into the car; Matt was already behind the wheel. He quickly threw the car into reverse, not even bothering to buckle his seatbelt, and sped away from the arena.

"Okay, care to explain things to me?" Jeff asked once he realized that Matt wasn't going to just provide the information.

Matt tossed the note at Jeff. "Read that."

It took Jeff only a few seconds to read the note. His eyes widened in shock. "Don't think this is over. Matt, you don't think…"

"Who else would write a note like that?" Matt asked. "It has to be whoever was behind everything before."

"But they haven't done anything since Wrestlemania…" Jeff couldn't- wouldn't- believe that this problem had resurfaced. He thought that the person would be satisfied with destroying his relationship with Matt. Whoever it was had made his life hell for nearly three months, through both their direct and indirect actions. What more could they want?

"Matt... What are we going to do?"

Matt glanced over at his brother. He honestly felt sorry for Jeff. Though he may have wanted to continue the investigation he had wanted to do it on their terms. That was no longer possible, not if their mysterious enemy was starting the "game" back up again. "I don't know," he said honestly. "If we continue the investigation you know that it's just going to be on their terms, but if we just sit back that's going to do nothing to stop them."

Jeff closed his eyes and rested his head against the window. He had just been reunited with his brother and was going to be tagging with him again, which he always loved. Things should've been perfect, but they weren't. Instead his back was acting up again and now this mysterious person was back to cause more problems.

He sighed. "I don't know if I can handle another two months of trying to figure this out," he admitted. "But I don't want to spend the rest of my career looking over my shoulder waiting for someone to attack me and screw up my life again." He hesitated for a moment before continuing. "We can't exactly trust anyone in the company right now, but that doesn't mean that we can't get help outside the company..."

Matt frowned. "You mean hire a private detective?"

"Why not? I mean, we've basically proven that we can't handle this ourselves."

"I get where you're coming from, but do you really think Vince is going to let us hire someone to poke around his company?" Matt pointed out. "If we bring someone else into this to stir up the WWE's dirty laundry, so to speak, we're basically saying that we don't want to work there anymore. You know we'll get released almost instantly."

"But if we don't do anything we might as well get released anyway," Jeff said. "My career at least will be less than spectacular, no matter how long I remain with the company."

Matt didn't say anything. They both knew what he was going to suggest, and Matt knew that Jeff wouldn't be thrilled with the idea, even if there wasn't anything else they could do.

It was Jeff who spoke first. "Matt, I know you're not going to like this, but can we not do anything right now? Maybe this is just an empty threat."

Matt snorted. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

Jeff shook his head. "No, but it's a possibility, right? Please, I just want a couple of weeks to pretend like things are back to normal and there's nothing to worry about."

Matt thought about it for a moment. If they put this off and ignored it there was a very good chance that things could get worse. Still, the past few weeks were very vivid in his mind. He clearly remembered how painful it was to be fighting Jeff and he didn't want to risk that happening, not when all they had to go on right now was one short sentence.

"Alright," he finally said. "We won't do anything for a couple of weeks unless something else happens." Jeff looked like he was about to protest, but Matt cut him off. "Jeff, if they attack you or something I'm not going to sit around and wait for it to happen again!"

Jeff sighed, but he knew his brother had a point. "Fair enough," he said. The car was silent for a few minutes before Jeff started chuckling.

Matt looked over at Jeff, clearly wondering why his brother was suddenly laughing. "What's so funny?"

"It's just no matter what we do now, we've made such a mess for the WWE," Jeff said.

"How so?"

"Well, for one thing they've got a psychotic worker running loose in the business, but even just in our storylines it's a mess. Do you even remember the stipulations placed on our investigation leading up to Wrestlemania?"

"Of course I do!" Matt said. "If you managed to figure everything out you'd get a shot at any title you wanted. If you didn't, your signature moves would be permanently banned. No, wait, he changed that to you being fired." Realization dawned on his face. "Oh crap…"

Jeff laughed again. "Exactly. What the hell are they supposed to do now? At the time I "figured out" that it was you behind everything, which meant I had the ability to go for any title I wanted. Now what are they going to do? We've basically come out and said that hey, you aren't guilty and we have no idea what's going on. Does he now have to fire me?"

Matt shook his head. "And you find this funny?"

"Well, yeah," Jeff admitted. "I mean, think about it. If I were to come out and announce that I was going to go after, say, the WWE title at the next pay-per-view, what would Vince do?"

Matt grinned. "Why do I have a feeling that that's exactly what you're going to do?"

"What's this? No lecture on how I should be more responsible?" Jeff teased.

"Well, you should, but in all honesty we're going to have to tie up loose ends at some point," Matt pointed out. "Out of curiosity, are you really going to go after the WWE title or did you have another in mind?"

"No, I think I'm going to see if Vince will let me have a shot at the WWE title."

Matt nodded. He couldn't blame Jeff for wanting to become WWE champion, but he could still remember when the plan was for them to be tag team champions again. "Good for you," he said. "You deserve it."

If Jeff noticed how forced the reply sounded, he didn't comment.

XXXXX

"Word in the locker room is that they're going to start writing storylines for us again," Jeff said when he met up with Matt at the arena the following week for Raw. Though both had time off they each had things they needed to do and hadn't seen much of each other. They wouldn't admit it, but the events of the past few weeks were still too close and neither had liked the prolonged separation.

"Doesn't surprise me," Matt said. "You know that they don't like us tagging together for extended periods of time anymore. Any idea what they're going to do?"

Jeff shook his head. "No, but some of the guys think that they might have you turn on me and reveal that you really were behind everything, just to bring back the feud between us."

Matt grimaced. After having to fight his brother for real he hated the thought of even having a scripted feud going between the two of them. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that…" he murmured. "By the way, did you hear who we're fighting tonight?"

"Yeah, isn't it Miz and Morrison?" Jeff asked.

Matt nodded. "At least we're starting off our tag teaming with a good match and, with any luck, we won't have to worry about there being any problems."

True to his word, their tag team match that night went off without a hitch. The crowd was completely behind them the entire time, while Matt and Jeff were simply glad to be working together once again. Finally, after a picture-perfect Poetry in Motion and after Matt took care of Miz with a Twist of Fate, Jeff hit Morrison with a Swanton for the pin.

"I don't believe it, JR!" Lawler was saying. "Just a few weeks ago these two were at each other's throats and now they just beat the tag team champions!"

Matt grinned when he heard those words. Sometimes he still couldn't believe it himself. A couple of times during the past week he had caught himself thinking that Jeff still hated him. It was going to take awhile to get past the last few weeks, but hopefully things would be back to normal in no time.

He rolled out of the ring, followed by Jeff, and the two of them made their way to the back. "Hey, what happened to tying up the loose ends that you talked about last week?" Matt asked as they made their way back to the locker room.

Jeff winced. "Well, I figured I should probably run it by Vince first, just to be safe. He basically said that if we were really tying up loose ends I should be fired for not figuring it out and that I should count myself lucky he's not going that route." He pushed open the door to the locker room and held it open for his brother before letting it swing shut.

Matt laughed. "It was a good plan in theory, anyway."

"Yeah, I guess," Jeff said as he grabbed his bag. "Listen, are you going to be long?"

"Probably not. Why?"

"I think I'm going to head out to the car now," Jeff said as he pulled the door open again. "Don't take forever, Matt!" He yelled over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

In all honesty, Matt hadn't planned on taking that long. However, it wasn't long before he found himself talking to some of the guys and he quickly lost track of time.

"Shit! Sorry guys, I've got to go," Matt said as he grabbed his bag and ran out of the locker room. He was surprised that Jeff hadn't come back in to find him, considering he should've been out at the car almost twenty minutes ago.

It didn't take him long to reach the car, but to his surprise his brother wasn't there. "Jeff? C'mon, man, this isn't funny!" He yelled. There was no response. He sighed. "When I find him I'm going to kill him," he muttered. He walked around the car, looking in the windows to make sure that Jeff hadn't fallen asleep in the back seat or something, but he wasn't there. _Maybe he went back to the arena and I just missed him._ Matt didn't think that was likely, but it was the only other option.

He turned around and started to head back to the arena when he saw something underneath one of the streetlights. Matt frowned, but jogged over to see what it was. He felt his blood run cold as he got closer and he sprinted the last few yards. "Jeff!" he yelled as he knelt down next to his brother. "No, no, no, no, no…"

There was blood trickling down the side of his face. Judging from the blood smear on the streetlight his head had been knocked into it. Jeff was out cold and didn't respond to Matt's cries.

"Matt, what's going on? We heard you yelling and…" Morrison's voice trailed off as he saw Jeff.

"Get a medic out here now!" Matt yelled. Morrison nodded, but the Miz was already running back inside.

"C'mon, Jeff, wake up," Matt pleaded quietly. "Wake up, please wake up…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable people.**

**A/N: Wow, this has certainly been a week for updates, hasn't it? Unfortunately my spring break is now over, so updates will be further apart again. For the record, I'm still not quite sure that I handled the legal/police aspect of this correctly, but if something's wrong just chalk it up to artistic license or something, hah!**

"Matt, you have to step back. We need to get to your brother."

Matt heard the medics, but their request didn't register. He kept his eyes locked on Jeff and didn't move from his spot by his side. After everything they had been through, why did this have to happen? If he hadn't listened to Jeff last week, if he had gone ahead and started poking into things, could he have prevented this?

Matt jumped when he felt someone gently rest a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon, Matt, you have to let the medics do their job," Morrison said softly. Matt nodded, but hesitated for a moment before allowing himself to be led a couple of steps back. The medics, who had been trying to work around Matt, shifted slightly and began working on Jeff's injuries with renewed vigor.

A small crowd of superstars and divas had started to gather, but were being kept back from the immediate area around Jeff by security. When they saw Matt move back from his brother they began calling out questions to him. Matt glanced over at them briefly before saying softly, "Could you hold them off? I… I don't want to deal with questions now."

Morrison nodded. "Yeah, no problem," he said. "But... Well, someone went to go get Vince. You're going to have to talk to him."

Matt sighed. "I was kind of expecting that," he murmured. He looked back at the medics, his stomach clenching in fear. He tried to tell himself that the dim streetlight made his brother look worse than he really was, but he knew that was a lie.

One of the medics looked up and motioned him over again. "Please tell me that there's good news," Matt said as he walked back over to where Jeff was.

"It's not as bad as it could be," the medic said. "He has normal pupil reaction and he's reacting to pain, which are always good signs and which might even indicate a lack of brain damage. Unfortunately, since he has yet to regain consciousness, we have to transfer him to the hospital. We've already called for an ambulance. It should arrive soon. However, it doesn't seem likely that he's in a coma. He might even regain consciousness on the way to the hospital."

Matt nodded, a wide grin spreading across his face. Although he knew that Jeff wasn't completely out of danger yet, it was a relief to know that things weren't as bad as he had originally thought.

"Hardy!" The harsh, loud shout could only belong to one person. Matt sighed, but turned around anyway. Sure enough, Mr. McMahon was walking quickly across the parking lot. "How's Jeff?"

"Not as bad as we thought at first," Matt said. "There doesn't seem to be any brain damage, but he hasn't regained consciousness yet, though the medics don't think he's in a coma. An ambulance should be arriving soon and I'll be going with him to the hospital."

Mr. McMahon nodded. "Were the police informed of this?"

Matt pointed over to where a police officer was talking to Miz and Morrison. "One of the medics called him when they first came out," he said. "He said he'd talk to me at the hospital and Jeff if he's awake."

"Matt, whatever you do, don't encourage the police to investigate this," Vince said, his voice completely serious. "The WWE does not need the bad publicity that comes with the police digging around backstage."

Matt stared at him. "There's going to be bad publicity over this no matter what we do," he pointed out. "I mean, you can't exactly sweep this under the rug, not with Jeff going to the hospital."

"And I'm not trying to," Vince said. "But I'm serious. No police investigation, if you can avoid it." An ambulance came to a stop not far from them and Matt could see Jeff being loaded onto a stretcher. Vince saw where he was looking and nodded slowly. "You go to your brother," he said. "But we will talk about this more later, when Jeff's stable."

Matt nodded. "I know, sir."

XXXXX

_JR stood in the ring, a microphone in hand. The crowd quieted down, wondering what his announcement was going to be. Shouldn't the main event be starting now? What was going on?_

"_Ladies and gentlemen, we have just received word of a vicious attack on a WWE performer," JR said. "Jeff Hardy was viciously assaulted after leaving the building and as of this moment is still unconscious." _

_He raised his voice to be heard over the crowd. "I know in this business it is hard to tell whether attacks like these are committed because of this business or for other reasons. However, I can tell you with complete certainty that Jeff was not attacked because of any current situations within the company." He may not be able to actually come out and say that this wasn't a planned attack, but he knew the fans would pick up on the hint._

While the announcement was being made, Jeff was just arriving at the hospital- and just starting to wake up. He was quickly brought inside and rushed off, while Matt was asked to kindly wait for the doctors to finish running tests before he could see him. Matt bit back the scathing reply that was on the tip of his tongue and just nodded.

Matt paced in the waiting room, unable to sit still for even a second. He knew that his brother was probably awake by then and he wanted to talk to him, even just for a few minutes. No, what he really wanted to do was find the person that did this to Jeff. He'd find them and make them _pay_ for what they did…

"Mr. Hardy?"

Matt started slightly and turned around. "Yeah, that's me," he said as he hurried over to the doctor. "How's Jeff? Is he alright?"

"Your brother is doing fine," the doctor reassured him. "He has a concussion and was convulsing earlier, but with that generally considered to be a good thing following a concussion, though it's not a common reaction. He's unconscious right now, but he should wake up again shortly. When he wakes up he may be dizzy, nauseas, disoriented-"

"I know the side effects of a concussion," Matt interrupted.

The doctor smiled. "Yes, I should think you would, considering your occupation. Well, as long as he's stable and in decent condition tomorrow he can leave. I don't want him wrestling for at least a week, though, and if the side-effects are particularly bad I want someone there with him while he recuperates."

Matt couldn't stop a huge smile from breaking out across his face. "Don't worry, I should be able to get out of the house shows for the rest of the week to watch over him," he said. Matt hesitated for a moment before asking, "Could I possibly see him now?"

"Of course," the doctor said. He told him the room number and Matt thanked him before hurrying down the hall in the direction the doctor had indicated.

Jeff was still unconscious when Matt walked into his room. He pulled one of the chairs over towards the bed and sat down, carefully looking over his brother. Although the doctor had told him that Jeff was relatively fine he didn't look like it. Matt reached out with a shaky hand and brushed the hair away from bandages on Jeff's face.

"When I find who did this to you I'll kill them," he whispered. "I'll kill them." He pulled his hand back and took a deep breath, momentarily looking away from Jeff as he tried to reign his emotions back in.

"But if you go to jail, who'll raise hell with me at work?" A soft voice murmured. Matt jumped and turned to stare at Jeff, who was blinking and squinting against the lights in the room. "How long was I out?" Jeff asked. His voice was slightly slurred, but still understandable.

"Not that long," Matt said quietly. "You woke up as soon as we got here and fell unconscious again sometime during the initial exam." He paused for a moment before asking, "How're you feeling?"

"Like crap." Jeff shifted slightly and groaned. "My head is pounding."

Matt chuckled. "Well yeah, your skull got bashed into a streetlamp."

Jeff winced. "Yeah, I remember that…" he muttered.

"What else do you remember, Mr. Hardy?" Matt and Jeff glanced over towards the doorway where the police officer from before was standing. "I'm Officer Greene. Can I ask you two a few questions?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Jeff said. "What do you need to know?"

"What happened tonight in the parking lot?" Officer Greene asked.

Jeff thought about it for a moment before answering. "I was on my way out to the car. My back was sore from the match and I stopped for a moment underneath the streetlight to stretch. That's when I felt someone grab the back of my head and smash it into the pole. The next thing I remember is waking up here."

Officer Greene nodded and wrote down a couple of things. "Do you know who attacked you? Did you notice anything about them?"

"No. Like I said they came up behind me. I never even saw them."

Officer Greene turned to face Matt. "You were the one who found him, correct?"

Matt nodded. "We were riding back to the hotel together, but I got caught up talking to some of the guys and lost track of time. When I finally went outside I thought Jeff would just be waiting for me in the car, but he wasn't there. Then I thought that he was just messing around or that he had gone back inside looking for me. I turned around to head back inside, when I saw him under the light."

"And that's when your two coworkers came over, correct?"

"Yeah. I had been yelling for Jeff and I guess they must have heard me or something. Miz ran to get the medics, who arrived not long after."

"Is there anyone that either of you can think of who'd want to hurt Jeff?"

Matt forced a laugh. "Well, yeah, but only inside the ring. I don't know who would attack him like this, though."

Jeff glanced over at Matt in confusion, but just said, "Matt's right. If any of the guys had a problem with me we'd settle it in the ring."

Officer Greene finished writing and closed the notepad. "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the attack, there's virtually no forensic evidence tied to the case. If either of you can think of anything that could help, don't hesitate to call us, but otherwise there's not much we can do."

When Officer Greene had left, Jeff glanced over at Matt again and said, "Okay, what the hell was that?"

Matt feigned innocence. "What was what?"

"You know. The whole "Oh, no one would ever want to hurt Jeff!" thing," Jeff said. "Why didn't you mention all the other shit that's happened?"

"Why didn't you?" Matt countered.

"If I did he would've known you were lying," Jeff pointed out. "And you still haven't answered my question."

Matt sighed. "Vince's orders," he muttered. "The police were not to get involved in an investigation of the WWE."

Jeff groaned. "You have got to be fucking kidding me," he said. "So what, I'm just going to be accused of pulling a publicity stunt to save the company?"

Matt shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I'm pretty sure they made an announcement on Raw about what happened, but I don't know what's going to happen next."

Jeff didn't say anything. He hoped that Vince wouldn't try to pin this on him, but he wouldn't put it past the man to do just that. Still, whatever their boss decided to do, there was still the question of what they were going to do, but Jeff didn't want to worry about that now. He knew he wouldn't be wrestling again for at least a week, probably longer if Creative wanted to play up his injury. Even if they mapped out a plan now, they couldn't put it into action for quite awhile, so why even bother?

XXXXX

Early the next morning the doctors let Jeff leave. Matt was waiting for him outside with their rental car. Both of their bags were already packed and in the trunk. "I called Vince after you fell asleep last night," he said. "You have the next two weeks off, but I need to go back to work next Monday."

Jeff nodded. Though Vince had let Matt take nearly a year off when he was out with his back injury, Jeff had suspected that Vince would want Matt at Raw next week to play the over-protective older brother role. "I take it we're flying home again?" he asked as he got in the car.

Matt nodded. "If you're up to it, that is. You seem a little off balance today."

"And dizzy and nauseus. And I'm sometimes seeing double, not to mention when I woke up this morning I was confused and disoriented." _Not to mention my back's killing me from my Swanton last night_, he added mentally. "Don't worry, though, I can handle the flight back to North Carolina."

"Are you sure?" Matt asked. "We could always drive back…"

Jeff glared at his brother. "I am not spending the first two days of my time off in a car driving back home!"

"Okay, okay!" Matt said with a laugh. "No driving, then."

Jeff grinned and settled back in his seat. "Onward, driver," he said in a fake-snooty voice.

Matt leaned over and cuffed him lightly on the back of the head.

"Hey! Injured person here!" Jeff reminded him, though he was laughing as he said it.

Matt just grinned and pulled out of the parking lot. He had no doubt that Jeff was going to drive him crazy by the time the week was over and there was still the fact that Jeff was injured, but considering how things could have been going, their situation didn't seem half bad.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned them… but I don't.**

**A/N: Today marks an important moment in this series- I know how it's going to end! Originally, back when this was only a trilogy, you never found out who did it. Then I've been going back and forth between a few people, but I finally have it pinned down! Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**

"If you drive straight to your house I'll kill you."

Matt glanced down at his brother. Jeff had fallen asleep not long after they had gotten off the plan and started the drive back home and he hadn't known he was awake. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning to," he assured him. Jeff had spent almost a year at Matt's house when he was out with his injury. It was only fair that, now that he was temporarily injured again, he be allowed to rest at his own home.

Jeff yawned and stretched as Matt turned down the long driveway that led to his house. He was still a bit out of it from his concussion and occasionally his vision was slightly off, but all things considering he wasn't doing that bad. He was just glad to be back home again. Hopefully he'd be able to relax and not worry about anything, at least for part of the time.

He saw the house in the distance and couldn't help but grin as he silently unbuckled his seatbelt. When Matt slowed down to take a particularly nasty corner Jeff opened his door and jumped out, tucking into a roll so he wouldn't get hurt.

"Jeff!" Matt yelled as he slammed on the brakes. "You fucking idiot, what were you thinking?"

Jeff popped up next to the car, the grin still plastered on his face. He slammed the door shut and said, "I was thinking that I could beat you back to the house!" With that he took off running down the road, soon vanishing in the darkness past the headlights.

Matt rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but grinning. Though part of him wanted to race after Jeff- after all, he was the one with the car- knowing his brother he was currently running down the center of the driveway just to make sure Matt couldn't get around him.

When Matt finally reached Jeff's house he wasn't surprised to see the front door open and the lights already on. The sounds of the local news station could be heard even out in the driveway. No doubt Jeff had already taken over the couch and was half asleep again. Matt grabbed their bags from the trunk of the car and made his way up to the house. He set down Jeff's bag by the front door, which he kicked shut behind him.

Jeff looked up from the TV as the front door slammed closed. "Thanks for grabbing my bag. Want to bring it up to my room too?"

Matt laughed and walked past his brother. "I did that much for you. You bring it upstairs yourself," he called over his shoulder as he climbed up the stairs and entered the guestroom.

Jeff laughed as well and stretched out on the couch, closing his eyes. He had been wondering whether Matt would take over his guestroom for a day or two or just go back to his own house. Although he wouldn't admit it, he was glad that Matt felt comfortable enough to spend even a single night at his house. Considering everything that had happened, he wouldn't have blamed Matt if he had decided to leave.

"As we reported earlier, WWE superstar Jeff Hardy was legitimately and brutally attacked after a live event last night." Jeff sat up and turned the volume on the TV up as the newscaster continued speaking. "Despite the initial lack of forensic evidence, it is now being reported than an arrest has been made. Sean Hurley, formerly convicted of a small robbery, was taken into custody and charged with avoiding arrest. New evidence found in his home ties him to the beating last night, but it is unknown at this time whether or not Mr. Hardy will be pressing charges."

Jeff closed his eyes tightly, burying his head in his hands. He was exhausted, not only physically from his injuries, both old and new, but also emotionally from the strain of never knowing if everything with Matt was truly alright. Even now when he had time off there was no escape from the problems. Soon he would have to decide whether or not to press charges and neither option looked particularly promising. If he did press charges there would be the stress of the trial, but if he didn't then he'd have to deal with Matt, who wouldn't understand why he had made that choice. It was just too much.

Matt watched from the top of the stairs as Jeff sat silently on the couch, the TV still turned on in the background. He had heard the newscaster say Jeff's name and caught the last part of the broadcast as he came out of his room. A couple of months ago he would have gone down to his brother to comfort him and try to help. Now, he hesitated. There was something about the scene below that sharply reminded him of the differences between the two of them now that made the ever-growing gap between the two brothers that much wider.

As he looked down on Jeff's still form Matt knew that his brother wouldn't press charges. Something about Jeff had shifted, vanished, _changed_. His confidence in his choices, his couldn't-care-less attitude, his outgoing personality- all of it was gone, or on its way there. Sure, he did he best to hide it, but Matt knew, almost instinctually, that Jeff was different.

And as Matt turned to retreat back to the guest room, he couldn't help but wonder if he had changed too.

XXXXX

"So I got an email from one of the guys today."

Jeff glanced up from his sketchpad. "So? You get emails almost every day." It was a couple of days after they had arrived back in Cameron and both were just spending their time relaxing.

Matt rolled his eyes. "That's not why I brought it up. You had mentioned how our free pass was getting revoked, so to speak. Seems that, with your injury and all, Creative doesn't want to bog us down with a new storyline, but they don't want to pin this on someone in the company if there's a police investigation going on. So it looks like we're still on our own."

Jeff grinned. "That's great!" He had become used to not having to follow a set script and wasn't looking forward to having to go back to that. Now it seemed like he wouldn't have to.

Matt nodded, but didn't say anything else. Jeff hesitated, knowing that he should talk to his brother about the police investigation, but unwillingly to bring it up. The room was silent for a few minutes before Jeff took a deep breath and said, "They arrested the guy who attacked me."

Matt nodded. "I know." At Jeff's quizzical look he added, "I saw it on the news when we first got back."

"Oh." Jeff paused for a moment before continuing. "I talked to Officer Greene the other day. According to him, the guy was paid to do it. He said that he got a letter in the mail- no return address or signature- that gave him the instructions."

"What happened to the letter?"

"He burned it," Matt said bitterly. "The guy doesn't know who hired him and the only evidence linking him to whoever that was is ash." Jeff smiled bitterly. "The police think they might have a new lead, though. The guy they arrested is claiming that whoever hired him gave the anonymous tip that led to his arrest."

Matt frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"Apparently the guy he hired screwed up. Guess he attacked me wrong or something." Jeff laughed humorlessly.

Matt watched Jeff carefully as his brother fell into a brooding silence. He was hesitant to ask if Jeff was going to press charges but, even though he had a good idea of what the answer would be, he was still curious. Before he could change his mind he blurted out, "Are you going to press charges?"

The room seemed deathly quiet. The question hung in the air between them as Jeff looked up, but said nothing at first. "No," he finally said. "I'm not."

Matt let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Okay."

"Okay? That's it? Just okay?" Jeff said, suddenly angry. "Matt, what's wrong with you?"

Matt frowned but managed to remain calm as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"That's what I mean! The calm acceptance of everything I say! It seems like the more time that passes the more you change!"

"What would you rather have me do? Yell and be angry?"

"Yes!" Jeff cried. "Because that's what you would've done before! You would've insisted that I was making a mistake! You would've been pissed when I implied that something was wrong with you! You're acting like you don't give a damn about what happens to me or what I do!"

"It's your life. You can make your own decisions." Jeff froze and Matt belatedly realized how that must've sounded. "No, Jeff, I didn't mean-" he began, but Jeff had already stood up and walked out of the room. Matt heard the front door slam shut but made no move to run after his brother.

He hadn't intended to sound like he didn't are about what Jeff chose to do. He meant that he wanted Jeff to make his own choices without thinking that he'd object to them. Matt didn't want Jeff to feel like he had to make his decisions based on what his brother would do. Now, more than likely, Jeff was hurt and angry, thinking that Matt couldn't care less about his problems when that wasn't true at all. He did care. It was just that Jeff didn't seem to want to do anything about what was going on and Matt had been trying to respect those wishes.

Matt sighed. All he wanted was for Jeff to be happy and for everything to go back to the way it was before. At had been willing to go along with Jeff's plan, or lack thereof, but not anymore. He knew now that that would never work and that, given the choice, Jeff would ignore the problems for as long as he could. Maybe, with a little bit of luck, he'd be able to solve this without Jeff having to worry at all.

XXXXX

Jeff looked warily up at his house. It had taken awhile for him to cool down enough to realize that he had misunderstood his brother. However, even after he had come to that conclusion he continued to just drive around, with no particular destination in mind. He knew that Matt had changed and it had unnerved Jeff to realize that he didn't know how his brother would react to his sudden departure. Would he be angry or act like nothing was wrong? Jeff simply didn't know.

However, he couldn't avoid his own home forever and so he finally found himself getting out of his car and making his way up to the house. To his surprise the front door was locked. He frowned but fished his keys out and unlocked it. _Please don't let this be a sign of Matt's attitude right now…_

"Matt?" Jeff called hesitantly as he stepped inside. The house was dark and seemed almost unwelcoming and foreboding. Jeff couldn't stop from shivering slightly as he flicked on the light and shut the door. "Matt, are you here?"

He made his way up the stairs and pushed open the door to the guest room. The bed was neatly made and no sign remained that Matt had ever been there. Jeff silently closed the door, his heart heavy with guilt. Matt was gone and there was no doubt in his mind that it was his fault.

As he passed through the living room he caught sight of a small, folded scrap of paper taped to the TV. He ripped it off and opened it, instantly recognizing Matt's handwriting.

_Jeff- _

_Despite what you're thinking our argument earlier isn't why I left, though I do apologize for what I said. I didn't mean to imply that I didn't care about you. I have some things I have to take care of at home- namely bills and some leakage in the basement from the rain yesterday and the day before. I'm flying out for Raw Sunday, but I don't know if I'll see you tomorrow. If not, I'll call you sometime during the day on Monday._

_-Matt_


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned, but I don't.**

**A/N: We're moving towards the end, guys! Four more chapters after this and the series will be done! –sniff- I don't know if I'm ready to let it go yet! Anyway, onward we go with another chapter!**

Matt was still trying to convince himself that lying to Jeff had been necessary. He had left his brother because of the argument, but not because he had been mad at Jeff. Rather, he was worried about how Jeff would react when he came back and found him still there. He had made a split-second decision to bolt and followed through with it.

He hadn't been lying, though, when he said that he had things to take care of at home. He did have bills and mail to sort through. He had been worried about his basement leaking from the rain as well, but when he arrived he found that everything was fine. Unfortunately, that only left him with bills to deal with, which did not put him in a good mood.

"I should've stayed at Jeff's house," he muttered as he violently dumped another pile of envelopes on the table and started to sort through them. "Knowing my luck he came home and wasn't pissed at me anymore, but saw my note and is blaming himself for overreacting."

Matt glanced over at the clock, silently debating if it was worth it to try to call Jeff under the pretense of taking a break from work. No, he'd already said that he'd talk to Jeff on Monday. This way, if Jeff was still pissed at him, he had some time to cool down, and if he wasn't pissed hopefully he'd believe that Matt just had a lot to do.

Matt stared at the envelopes in front of him and sighed. He really did not want to spend the rest of his time off sorting through envelopes and paying the bills. He pushed the unopened mail to one side of the table and grabbed one of the now-empty envelopes and a pen, deciding that he could at least start writing out a list of what he knew about the person who was behind everything.

_1) They're in the WWE or at least connected to it._

It was a pretty obvious statement, but Matt was determined not to leave anything out.

_2) They either hate Jeff or have something to gain from ruining his career._

Unfortunately, that didn't really narrow down the list. Anyone would benefit from there being an empty spot at the top of the card. He decided to narrow it down a bit.

_3) They're either high up enough that they don't think this can touch them or they're low enough that they've got nothing to lose._

That eliminated most of the mid-carders, since few of them would be willing to risk their only chance at a title shot over something like this.

_4) They've got enough extra money to be able to pay someone to attack Jeff._

That narrowed it down as well, since some of the mid-card guys with families didn't have a lot of extra money to spend on hiring someone and none of the guys at the bottom of the food chain had a lot of extra money either.

_5) They have enough influence to bribe at least one person (Jericho) into helping._

Matt still hadn't forgotten that Jericho had been the one with the incriminating evidence. Chris may have been an asshole at times, but he was almost positive that no amount of money would convince him to try to ruin someone's career.

Matt sighed and ran over the list quickly. "So I'm looking for someone high up in the WWE who's at least fairly rich, very influential, and could definitely benefit from all of this," he said to himself.

The first person who came to mind was Hunter. He was one of the top superstars in the company, obviously very rich, and had married into the McMahon family. Not to mention that with one less person competing for the title there was a better chance of Hunter becoming champion again.

At first, Matt rejected the idea. After all, Hunter came to visit Jeff in the hospital after his surgery, car filled with bears and get-well cards, not to mention that his career wouldn't be killed if he didn't get the title right away. While he was married to Stephanie, Matt knew that Hunter had tried not to let that affect his status in the company too much.

But Matt couldn't forget that it was Hunter that gotten into the fight with Jeff backstage, nor the fact that he was a McMahon, whether he would use that advantage or not. Whether or not he was behind everything was irrelevant; he was a dangerous player in this game, pun not intended, and Matt couldn't afford to forget that.

XXXXX

Jeff didn't know what it was that made him need to have Matt close by. It was never like this before his got inured. Sure, he liked having his brother around and they had enjoyed each other's company before but there wasn't that feeling of betrayal that there was now whenever Matt left. Was it because they had spent nine months together while he was injured? Or was it because Jeff still expected every little spat to turn into a huge fight?

Whatever the reason, the current situation reminded Jeff far too much of the weeks after Wrestlemania and it unnerved him.

Jeff knew that Matt would stick to his word and not call him until Monday, but that didn't stop him from continuously glancing over at the phone, as if expecting it to start ringing at any moment. Once, he had picked up the phone to call Matt himself, but he set it down again without dialing a single number. If Matt wanted to be left alone then so be it.

Jeff had plenty of household chores to take care of, but he couldn't quite bring himself to start working on anything, not when he had another week off with nothing to look forward to and especially not when he was in his current mood. Instead, he spent the day lying on the couch, alternating between channel surfing and sketching and note quite finding a lot of entertainment in either. He finally tossed his sketchbook off to the side in frustration.

The almost-forgotten Sharpie designs on his left arm caught his eye. They were nearly completely faded now, two weeks of showers and sweat dimming the colors to mere remnants of their former glory. He briefly toyed with the thought of getting part of it tattooed before they disappeared completely, but rejected the idea. Although it could make a good tribute to the evils in his recent past, he wasn't quite sure that _everything_ was entirely in his past.

If Sunday passed slowly, Monday seemed to barely crawl along. Jeff knew that even if Matt had caught an early flight it would still be early afternoon, at least, before he landed. After that he'd have to find his hotel, figure out what he was supposed to do that night on Raw, and make his way over to the arena to start getting ready for the show. Jeff knew all of that, but he couldn't help but wonder if maybe Matt didn't call simply because he didn't want to.

_Stop that_, he silently chided himself. _You don't need Matt around all the time for everything to be okay._

Finally, about half an hour before Raw was about to start, the phone rang. Jeff all but dived for it. "Hello?"

"Hey, man, sorry for not calling earlier." It was Matt. "I've been swamped with work stuff since I landed. Vince forced me to go to an impromptu meeting about the show tonight."

Jeff chuckled, feeling some of the anxiety from the past two days start to slip away. "Yeah, well, you know how Vince can get sometimes."

"Not like you have any reason to complain. You still have a week off!"

"Some of us are just lucky like that," Jeff joked. The two of them fell silent for a few moments before Jeff said, "Listen, about what happened on Friday-"

"You don't have to stay anything, Jeff," Matt interrupted.

"Yeah I do. I was an ass for acting like I did. I know that's not what you meant and I overreacted."

Matt snorted. "It's not like I reacted any better," he said. "So let's just admit that we were both morons and call it a day."

Jeff laughed. This was why he liked being on Matt's side, because at times it seemed like his brother had the power to fix everything. Jeff knew that wasn't true, but Matt was always the one to help him through his messes and always seemed to be able to smooth things over. "Sounds like a plan," he said cheerfully.

Matt snorted and asked, "You're watching Raw tonight, right?"

"Of course."

"Good. And I've got to get going. I'm out first tonight and the show's going to be starting soon."

Jeff glanced over at the clock. Sure enough, it was about ten of nine. "Alright then," Jeff said. "Listen, thanks for calling, man."

"I said I would, didn't I? Besides, you were probably over there pining over the absence of your older brother," Matt joked.

Jeff laughed. "You wish," he said. "Now get going. You know Vince will have your head if you're late for the start of Raw."

Matt chuckled, but the two of them said their goodbyes and hung up.

Jeff tossed the phone down onto an empty chair. He couldn't believe he had spent the past two days freaking out. He should've known that everything was fine, but instead he assumed the worse. _No, I should've known what Matt meant to say and not made the situation worse_, he thought bitterly.

"I'm never going to do anything to fuck things up more than they already are," he muttered as he turned on the TV and flipped to find Raw. He paused for a moment, frowned, and added, "But I get one free pass."

XXXXX

Matt flipped his cell phone shut, stuck it back in his pocket, and breathed a sigh of relief. The emotional scars from the past few weeks had yet to fade and he had half expected Jeff to refuse to talk to him, though deep down he knew that that was ridiculous. Still, both of them were still reeling from their feud with each other, unsure of what to say but unable to stop talking, afraid to move but wanting to race like before.

Despite that, despite everything that had happened, Jeff was still his brother and nothing could change that. Matt thought back to the week before, the all-too familiar fury raging inside him at the thought of what had happened to Jeff. He could still see him lying under the dim streetlight, blood trickling down the side of his face and unresponsive to his frantic shouts. Whoever had organized that attack would pay; he would make sure of that.

The sound of his music starting startled Matt from his thoughts. He paused for a moment to take a deep breath before walking out into the arena and straight down to the ring, all but blind and deaf to the cheers of the crowd. He had a message, a promise, a _threat_ to deliver tonight and nothing would stop him now.

"Last week, while I was packing up my gear and talking to some of the guys, Jeff left the arena and made his way over to our rental car," Matt began. "He never got there."

"Someone attacked my brother in the parking lot last week. They snuck up behind him and bashed his head against a streetlight. I found him lying under that same light, unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion."

Matt paused to take a breath. That was the easy part. The rest would be lies, exaggerations, and threats. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but one misstep here could have legal repercussions if it interfered with the police investigation.

"At first, there wasn't enough evidence at the scene to make any sort of a case, but last week the police made an arrest and found more evidence at that person's home. However, there is reason to believe that that man was hired by someone else." Matt paused for effect before continuing. "Jeff is not here tonight due to the side effects of the concussion, which have not yet completely subsided, but I am here and I have something to say to whoever set this up.

"I don't know who you are. I don't know if you're in the WWE or if this even has anything to do with the company. What I do know is that this was _not_ set up backstage, as far as I know. Whether it's connected to what Jeff's gone through in recent months or not is irrelevant. All I know is that whoever you are, wherever you are, I will find you. I will find you and hurt you like you've hurt us and leave you half-dead and unconscious for your brother to find!"

Matt threw down the mic and made his way backstage. It had been a short promo, but he had gotten his point across. Let the police interpret his threat however they wanted. He had meant every word of it.

"Matt? Can I… can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, no problem," Matt said. He forced a grin as he stopped to face the Diva. "What do you need, Mickie?"

Mickie bit her lip and glanced around nervously. "Were you telling the truth out there?" She asked softly. "About the police knowing that someone hired that guy?"

"Yeah, I was," Matt said. "Why?" Mickie looked around again, her eyes darting back and forth, but didn't answer. "C'mon, Mickie, you can trust me." Mickie shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears. Matt gently cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. "What's wrong?" he asked softly.

Mickie began to cry softly and Matt pulled her close, doing his best to comfort her and letting her take her time before talking to him. Finally she pulled away from him, wiping her eyes and sniffing but no longer crying. "You have to believe me, I didn't want to do it," Mickie said softly, doing her best to avoid looking at Matt.

Matt tried not to jump to conclusions, but he already feared the worst. "What did you do?"

"About three months I got a letter in the mail," she said quietly. "In it were instructions for suggesting a storyline to take place immediately- a storyline affecting your brother."

Matt froze and pulled back slightly out of shock. Mickie was the one they had been looking for before Wrestlemania? She had started everything? He didn't want to believe it.

She must have noticed his reaction because she quickly continued. "I didn't have a choice, you have to understand that!" she said desperately. "The letter said that if I didn't do this or if I told anyone about it they'd make me job to Rosa Mendes for the rest of my career if I stayed in the WWE long enough for that to happen! I didn't know it would go that far, I swear I didn't!"

Matt slowly exhaled, trying to sort through everything. He was furious with her for the part she played, but he could also sympathize with her. The fate she was threatened with was horrible enough for anyone to cave in. There was also the fact that Mickie had come forward to talk to him, albeit after the fact, and she had given him new information to work with.

He suddenly realized something and said, "That's why you were so upset when Jeff and I started fighting, because you felt like you were to blame for it." Mickie nodded and he sighed. "Look… I don't know what to do. I'm not going to turn you in if you're worried about that, but…"

Mickie nodded. "I understand," she whispered. "Just, thanks for hearing me out, Matt."

Matt nodded as Mickie turned and walked away, already deep in thought, busy connecting the threads of the puzzle.

XXXXX

Jeff heard thunder rumbling in the distance and sighed. It had been sunny earlier and he was hoping that the rain would hold off, but it looked like it was back. "Damnit, I don't think I closed the car windows," he muttered.

Jeff grabbed his car keys and made his way outside, grateful that the lights from the house illuminated the driveway a bit. When he reached his car he found that, sure enough, the front windows were still rolled down. Jeff sighed again, but climbed in the car and turned it on. He rolled up the windows before turning it off again and locking the car back up.

He paused, frowning, outside his car. He could've sworn he had heard something, but it was probably just the night playing tricks on him. He turned back towards the house but had only taken one step when he felt something heavy connect with his lower back.

Jeff cried out and fell to the ground as his back erupted in pain. He thought he heard the sound of someone running away, but he couldn't be sure. He grabbed onto the tire, trying to pull himself up, but his back hurt too much and he collapsed again.

_I've got to get to the house, got to get to the house…_ Jeff thought desperately as he began to painstakingly, crawl forward. Even that slow forward progress was almost too much and Jeff had to stop, again and again. _I've got to get to the house…_

Overheard, lightening flashed in the sky and the heavens opened up.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I only own the OC's… er, make that OC. Singular. But still.**

**A/N: Only three more chapters, guys! We're really starting to get into things now. Some more loose ends are tied up in this chapter, which I'm sure you're all happy about, LOL! Also, my laptop has a virus- again. So I can't write on it, which means that I'm back to using school computers. I'll still try to update fairly regularly, though.**

Jeff cracked open an eye and squinted against the bright light that streamed in through the front blinds. He rolled over and groaned as his back violently protested the movement. He frowned and tried to remember exactly what had happened the night before. He knew he had been attacked, and then…

_Jeff collapsed just inside his house and pushed the door shut with his foot. Though he was shivering and soaking wet his back felt like it was on fire. He reached out with a shaky hand, grabbed the doorknob, and started to pull himself up. His hand slipped off and he cried out as he landed hard on the ground, but he gritted his teeth and tried again. _

_Finally, he was standing up, though he was leaning heavily against the door. He stumbled forward, managing to grab the back of the couch and miraculously remain upright. _

_He knew he needed to get out of his wet clothes and make sure that his back was alright but that would require going upstairs and Jeff didn't think he could do that. He glanced over at the stairs for a moment before turning the other way and staggering down the hall, relying on furniture and the walls to remain standing. _

_He pushed open the bathroom door and sagged against the sink. Jeff started to pull his shirt off, but it hurt to move his arms and stretch his back out. He pulled at the wet fabric and sighed. "At least its not one of my favorites," he muttered as he grabbed the emergency scissors out of the medicine cabinet and started cutting the shirt away. _

_He turned around and did his best to look over his shoulder. Apart from the start of what would be a horrible bruise, there wasn't any damage- visible damage, anyway. _

Jeff had, somehow, managed to stumble back to the living room where he collapsed onto the couch and almost instantly fell asleep. Now that he was finally awake he wished he wasn't. His whole back was stiff and sore. Jeff slowly sat up, wincing as his back cracked loudly and continued to throb.

He carefully stood up and was happy to find that he was able to do so without collapsing. He retrieved his cell phone from where he had stashed it at some point the day before and scrolled through his contacts. He knew he needed to tell Matt what had happened, but there was someone else he needed to contact first.

"Dr. Carleson's office, how can I help you?"

"I'm Jeff Hardy, a former patient of Dr. Carleson's. I need to make an appointment with him. What's the first opening you have?"

"You're in luck. We had someone cancel an appointment for 3 o'clock this afternoon. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, it does," Jeff said. "Thanks."

Jeff hung up, but didn't set his phone down right away. He knew he should call Matt and it wasn't that he didn't want to talk to him, but his appointment was later that day. He'd call Matt afterwards and explain everything, including what Dr. Carleson said.

He tossed his phone down onto the couch and cracked his back again, before shuffling off down the hall to hunt for the heating pad.

XXXXX

Matt carefully watched the back entrance to the arena where various wrestlers and WWE workers were entering. Though it was only a house show the backstage area would still be fairly busy once everyone had arrived. Matt had been one of the first to show up and he had quickly staked out this area to wait for Jericho to show up. After Mickie had talked to him the night before he had started to wonder if Jericho had been put in a similar situation.

Finally, Jericho entered. "Chris, can I talk to you for a minute?" Matt asked as he jogged over towards his coworker.

"Sure, I have enough time before my match," Jericho said. "What do you want?"

"One of the girls caught up to me after my segment on Raw last night and confessed that she was the one who had suggested Jeff's storyline," Matt said. "She mentioned that she had been blackmailed and threatened into doing it."

"Did Mickie sell me out to you or did you figure this out on your own?" Jericho interrupted.

"I figured it out on my own." Matt frowned. "Wait, how did you know that it was Mickie that I talked to?"

Jericho sighed. "I'm only going to explain this once, so listen closely," he said. "It was pretty obvious from the beginning that I had something to do with all of this and as you've probably figured out by now I was the one who had videotaped that conversation you had over the phone. I received an anonymous letter explaining the details of the storyline and was told to film you talking on the phone about Jeff's back."

"How were you threatened?" Matt asked.

"Same as Mickie. They said they'd bury me if I didn't help them. I was coming off of a weaker storyline at the time. The program with Shawn and Randy had gotten stale and there was already some talk of bringing up some of the younger guys to work major feuds, which would push guys like me back down."

Matt nodded. He had suspected that that was what had happened and he had heard some of the rumors that Jericho mentioned for himself.

"Anyway," Jericho continued. "After I got the raw video I sent it to some of the guys that edit the Smackdown footage and they pieced together the final version that you saw. Mickie came up to me after that. She explained her part in everything and said that she was told to watch the final video so she knew everything that there was to know, should the worst happen.

"I'll admit, I was suspicious of her at first, but after she saw the video the poor girl broke down. I don't think she had realized what she would be held responsible for if the trail ever led back to her. Luckily, she never got blamed for anything but it just about broke her heart to see you and Jeff fighting each other. She's always felt like she's to blame for that."

_And my reaction to her story last night probably didn't make her feel any better_, Matt though guiltily. He made a mental note to apologize to the Diva later. "Do you know anyone else who's involved in this?" he asked.

Jericho shook his head. "No, and I'm not just saying that to protect them like Mickie was. I only knew about the two of us."

"Matt, I need to talk to you!" Matt glanced to his left and saw Miz making his way over.

"Listen, Matt, I hope you find whoever did this," Jericho said quietly. "And let me know when you do. You aren't the only one with a score to settle."

Matt nodded and Jericho slipped away as Miz approached. "Matt, how's Jeff?" he asked, his voice sounding almost panicky.

Matt frowned, unsure why Miz was taking a sudden interest in his brother, but said, "He's fine. All that stuff about the concussion still bothering him that I said last night was an exaggeration. He only has the extra week off for storyline purposes."

Miz shook his head. "I'm not talking about the concussion. When was the last time you talked to Jeff?"

"Last night before the show. Why?" Although he tried not to show it, Matt was starting to worry. What was going on?

"Just listen to what I have to say and then call him," Miz said. "By now you know that someone was pressuring people into setting up aspects of Jeff's earlier storyline."

"Let me guess, they got to you too?" Matt interrupted.

Miz nodded. "They threatened me with the usual. To prevent jobbing for the rest of my career, I was supposed to make sure that everything got done. Mickie and Jericho didn't realize it but I was watching everything they did, making sure that they both followed through with everything. Last night after the show I found another note, this one with a phone number in it. I was supposed to call that number and make sure that everything got carried out."

"What was going to be carried out?" Matt asked, almost afraid of what the answer was going to be.

Miz paused for a second before quietly say, "There was going to be another attack." Matt inhaled sharply, but Miz continued talking. "By the time I found out about the plan it would've already been over or I swear I would've told you about it sooner. When I called the number a woman picked up and I asked for George- that was the guy's name that was going to be doing this. She was really upset and told me that George had died about half an hour earlier when he wrapped his car around a tree after trying to drive while drunk."

"Shit, Miz! What the fuck happened to Jeff? Is he alright?" Matt was barely holding it together at this point. He _needed_ to know if the guy had managed to attack Jeff or not.

Miz sighed. "I don't know. I don't know if he ever made it to Jeff's house or anything. All I know is the guy's dead and he was supposed to attack your brother last night."

"Thanks for telling me about this," Matt said as he dug out his phone. He was just about to call his brother when he realized that he needed to go out for his match in only a few minutes. "Damnit."

XXXXX

_Why the fuck did I decide to come here?_ Jeff asked as he paced in the exam room, waiting for Dr. Carleson to come back with his test results. He knew that he needed to know what condition his back was in but it wasn't until they started running the all-too-familiar tests on him that he remembered how obnoxious the whole process it was.

The door opened and Dr. Carleson walked inside. "Well, I have your test results here-"

"Can I still wrestle?" Jeff interrupted.

Dr. Carleson sighed. "Some things never change. Your back is slightly injured again. You should still be able to wrestle, but..."

"But what?" Jeff prompted.

"You've had a good career, haven't you?" Dr. Carleson asked. "You might not have accomplished everything you've wanted to, but it's been a good career overall."

"Yeah, I mean, I guess it has," Jeff said. "But I don't see-"

"Jeff, I'm telling you this because its something you need to keep in mind," Dr. Carleson continued. "The more you wrestle the worse your back is going to get. Maybe you have a couple of years left, maybe only a couple of months. It depends on what you put your body through during the rest of your career, however long that may be. I'm not saying what the right path is going to be, but you have had a good run.

"Have you ever considered retirement?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: You all know the drill by now. I don't own any of the wrestlers.**

**A/N: Yay for being able to go to the library two days in a row, LOL! Only two more chapters after this, folks! This is really just the transition into the finale, so forgive me if it seems a bit slow in places and I'm sorry its shorter than usual. Anyway, onward we go!**

Matt grabbed his cell phone as soon as he was backstage and quickly dialed Jeff's number. It rang once, twice, three times. Matt's heart started racing, though he did his best not to think of the worst.

"Hey, Matt."

Matt breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god you're alright!"

"What are you talking about? Why wouldn't I be alright?" Jeff asked

"Miz caught up to me before the show and told me that someone had arranged for you to be attacked last night!" Matt said. "You weren't, were you?"

"Oh crap, I forgot I wanted to call you about that this afternoon," Jeff said. "Yeah, someone nailed me in the back last night about halfway through Raw." Jeff paused for a moment before saying, his voice laced with suspicion, "Wait a second, how did Miz know about that?"

"He got coerced into helping whoever's behind everything, like Jericho and Mickie," Matt said. "Damnit, Jeff, you sure you're alright?"

"Whoa, wait, back up," Jeff said. "What was that about Jericho and Mickie?"

"Are you alright?"

"Answer my question first! You can't just hint at three of our coworkers being forced into helping set this up and then not explain it!"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Jeff, you're flying out the day after tomorrow to catch up with the rest of the roster so you can work a couple of house shows before Raw-"

"I am?"

"Vince didn't tell you?"

Matt could almost hear Jeff shaking his head. "This is the first time I've heard about this," he said.

Matt sighed. "Vince wants you to have a couple of house show matches before coming back to Raw, so that if there ends up being a match on Monday you wouldn't have gone two weeks without wrestling. Look, it's going to be easier to explain everything to you in person. I'll show you my notes and tell you what I found out then, but are you alright?"

"You've been digging into this without telling me?"

Matt could've groaned. "Yes, Jeff, because I knew that this wasn't something you were looking forward to dealing with!"

There was a pause and Matt started to worry that he might have offended his brother. "Thank you," Jeff finally said quietly. "For taking care of this so I didn't have to."

Matt chuckled. "It wasn't too difficult or anything," he said. "Mickie and Miz came to see me and the rest fell into place. Now, _are you alright_?"

"Matt, I'm fine," Jeff said. "My back hurt like hell at first but I'm fine now. I went to see Dr. Carleson again, just to be sure, and he said that I could continue wrestling so there's no problem there."

"What happened?"

"I went out to close my car windows and the bastard snuck up behind me and got me when I wasn't paying attention. I didn't see who they were, but it felt like they nailed me with a branch or something. They took off running as soon as I was down. Took me awhile to get back into the house, but I was mostly fine the next morning."

"Mostly fine?"

Jeff sighed. "My back was stiff at first and it hurt to move a lot but it loosened up throughout the day. Matt, seriously, I'm fine now, okay?"

"Okay," Matt said. "Listen, there's someone I have to talk to. I'll see you on Thursday, alright?"

"Yeah, see you then."

Matt flipped his phone shut, his hand involuntarily clenching into a fist. There was no more doubt in his mind. Only one person could have done this and he intended to pay them a visit.

Matt pushed open the door to the locker room, quickly scanning the room. It was empty, with most people waiting for the match to start or choosing to spend their time elsewhere. Only one other person was in the room- the one person Matt wanted to talk to.

"Hey, Matt, what's eating you?" Hunter asked as he dug through his bag.

"You know what's eating me," Matt said. "Or are you going to act like you don't know what I'm talking about?"

Hunter frowned and turned to face the elder Hardy. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "Why're you pissed at me? I haven't done anything to you."

"So you weren't the one who arranged to have Jeff attacked last night?"

"Jeff was attacked last night?" Hunter seemed genuinely surprised. "Is he okay?"

"Why the hell should you care if he's okay?" Matt yelled. "Two attacks on my brother and forcing three of our coworkers to do your dirty work for you- that's low, Hunter, real low."

Hunter seemed confused for a moment, before his eyes widened in shock. "Shit, three others? Damnit, and I thought..." His voice trailed off as he spun around and started digging through his bag again.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about this, Hardy," he said as he turned back around and thrust a piece of paper at Matt.

Matt carefully took the piece of paper and unfolding it. He quickly scanned the sheet, unable to believe what he was reading. "You? They got you too?"

Hunter nodded. "That's why I started that damn fight with Jeff backstage a couple of weeks ago," he said. "They threatened to hurt my family if I didn't. I'd gamble with my career, but not with the safety of my family."

"But why would they threaten your family?" Matt asked. "The others just got threatened with jobbing."

"Not trying to brag or anything, but there's only so many people Creative can have me job to, Matt," Hunter pointed out. "And if I fight them too often it gets real stale real fast. I'm assuming they didn't think they could pull it off and decided to threaten me with something they knew I wouldn't risk."

Matt sighed. "Damnit, Hunter, I'm sorry," he said. "I thought-"

"Don't worry about it. If I was in your position I would've made the same assumption," Hunter said.

Matt nodded, but he still felt like crap for accusing Hunter of abusing his connections in the WWE. He should've known he wouldn't do that.

"Anyway," Hunter continued. "If it bothers you that much, just let me know who threatened my family so I can kick their ass and we'll call it even."

Matt laughed. "Get in line, then," he said. "A lot of people have a score to settle with them."

XXXXX

"I won't drop dead if you stop watching me every second."

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Jeff rolled his eyes and smothered a grin. It was fairly amusing how over protective Matt was being, in an exasperating sort of way. "Matt I'm fine! I was fine five minutes ago when you last asked and I'm still fine now!"

"You're limping slightly," Matt accused.

"So are you," Jeff pointed out.

"I strained my ankle the other night."

"And I got hit in the back with a two-by-four."

Matt frowned. "The guy hit you with a two-by-four?"

"I don't know! It felt like he did!" Jeff said. "And before you ask, yes, I'm still fine!" Matt quickly leaned over and poked Jeff in the back. Jeff cringed and moved away from his brother. "You bastard, that hurt!"

"See, you're not fine," Matt said. "You shouldn't wrestle tonight."

"Matt, it's one match. One _tag_ match, and with you as my partner I'll be lucky if I get in the ring at all," Jeff said. "Besides, Dr. Carleson said I'd be fine to wrestle." _For a little while, anyway, _Jeff added silently.

Matt narrowed his eyes. "You went to see Dr. Carleson?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Matt shook his head. "Oh. Well, yeah, I did," Jeff said casually. "Decided to get it checked out, just to be safe, and he said I'd be fine to wrestle." Jeff silently prayed that his brother didn't ask him to elaborate. He figured that this was his one free pass for lying to Matt. _Besides_, he reasoned. _It's not like he told me I absolutely couldn't wrestle again. Just said that I'd be an idiot if I did._

"And I didn't even have to force you to go," Matt teased.

Jeff laughed. "I can do some things right, from time to time," he joked before changing the subject. "So where are these notes you promised to show me?"

"Back at the hotel room. I forgot them."

Jeff narrowed his eyes. "No you didn't. I know that look. You left them there on purpose, didn't you?"

"We wouldn't have had time to go over everything anyway," Matt told him. "You need to drop your stuff off at the hotel and then we need to leave to get to the arena."

"Fine, maybe I'll hunt down Miz, Jericho, and Mickie during the show and find things out for myself," Jeff said.

Matt shook his head. "Can't. Miz is back with the ECW roster, Jericho is finishing up a signing on the other side of town, and Mickie just won't be there."

Jeff groaned. "You're kidding!" Matt shook his head. "Aw, crap!"

XXXXX

"Matt! Tag me in!" Jeff yelled as he stretched his arm towards his brother. Matt had been doing his best to keep Jeff out of the match and Jeff had only been in a couple of times. Matt glanced over and subtly shook his head before focusing his attention on Cody Rhodes again, hitting him with the Twist of Fate and going for the pin.

One, two...

Ted DiBiase hit Matt's back to break up the three count. Jeff climbed into the ring and charged at the other man, knocking him over the top rope before launching himself over after him. Despite DiBiase doing his best to cushion the landing, Jeff still felt the effect that the landing had on his back. He hissed in pain, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to listen for the three count.

One, two, three.

Matt watched worriedly as Jeff rolled back into the ring. He could tell his brother was in pain, probably from his dive over the top rope. Matt moved closer to Jeff, as if to congratulate him on a job well done, and said, "I told you you shouldn't wrestle."

Jeff rolled his eyes but fixed a smile on his face. "I'm fine," he insisted. "Nothing more than the usual aches and pains."

"We both know you're lying."

Matt was right. He was lying- not that he was going to admit that. He was actually surprised that he wasn't having any problems standing. His back felt almost as bad as it did during that first match with Orton almost a year ago, but he'd probably be fine the next day.

He had to be.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I know this, you know this, but it still has to be said. I own nothing.**

**A/N: One more chapter after this, folks! If, after reading this, you let me live long enough to actually write it, that is... Sorry that it's a bit shorter and sorry that it took me so long to finish it. I've already started the next chapter, so hopefully that one will be posted soon!**

Jeff could feel the stiffness in his back the moment he woke up and was afraid to try to get out of bed. The pain was nothing more than a dull ache but he had a feeling that that would change as soon as he started moving. He shifted slightly and rolled carefully onto his side, wincing as he did so. He needed an ice pack or a heating pad or something before he'd really be able to move around but he couldn't get either of those things without first getting up.

How ironic.

Jeff stayed where he was for a moment and tried to think of something to do. He would call Matt but his phone was on the other side of the room. Besides, the last thing he wanted first thing in the morning was a lecture from his brother. It seemed like his only options for the time being were to not do anything and hope that the pain eventually faded away, or start moving and deal with the pain until he could get ice.

He sighed. Both options sucked, but since there wasn't any other choice Jeff slowly started to sit up. Like he had predicted, the pain in his back got ten times worse, but he gritted his teeth and kept moving. He shakily stood up and crossed the room in a few slightly hesitant steps.

It took Jeff longer than he had expected to get the ice. Instead of his back feeling better after having a chance to stretch out, it only felt worse. He groaned as he sank down into one of the chairs in the room and placed the bag of ice against his back.

_"You're crazy," Jeff said firmly. "I can't retire! Besides, why should I even listen to you?" Although he didn't say it, they both knew that he was referring to the time when Dr. Carleson originally told him that he wouldn't be able to wrestle again._

_"You don't have to listen to me," Dr. Carleson. "But it is something you need to think about. You've already had one major back surgery. Do you want another? Two more?"_

_"Other people have had spinal fusions and haven't had any problems," Jeff pointed out._

_"Those people probably didn't make their injury worse before surgery. Or at the very least, they haven't had someone taking shots at them outside the ring, like you have."_

_Jeff shook his head. "You don't know what you're talking about," he said. "Wrestling is my life. I can't just walk away from it!"_

_"You're going to have to eventually," Dr. Carleson said. "Look. This isn't about you paralyzing yourself after a match. This is a matter of how much pain you can handle on a day to day basis. If you keep wrestling longer than you should, you will need more surgery. You'll wake up everyday barely able to move. You're matches will be agonizing. How much will it take before wrestling loses its appeal?"_

Jeff hadn't really listened to what Dr. Carleson was saying. His back only really hurt because someone had attacked him. It had nothing to do with the crazy Swantons and stunts he had been pulling since his return, right?

He didn't want to put stock in what Dr. Carleson had said and he didn't want to think about years spent in the same excruciating pain that he was currently in. He certainly didn't want to think about retiring… and yet, it seemed like he had no other choice.

Three to five years of waking up with his back in knots, barely able to move. That was 1,095 to 1,825 mornings spent exactly as he was now. Travelling early would no longer be an option. He might not be able to do any of his signature moves anymore and his matches would have to be carefully planned to make sure that no more damage was done to his back- assuming Vince let him keep wrestling once he found out.

On the other hand, retirement meant the end of everything that made up his current life. No more arenas full of screaming fans. No more epic matches. No more hotels and crappy food and getting drunk with the guys.

No more mystery-person trying to sabotage his career, though.

A new thought struck Jeff. What would he do if he couldn't wrestle? He could live comfortably for the rest of his life, but would his art and music be enough to occupy his time? Could he really step completely back from the wrestling world and move onto something new? So much of his life had been invested in the ring. It was a part of who he was; he couldn't just leave that behind.

Jeff moved the ice pack aside and carefully stretched out his back. It didn't feel as stiff or sore as it had been before. Maybe he had just overreacted a bit. Maybe it wasn't really as bad as he thought it had been. Then again… Jeff glanced over at the clock. Sure enough, he had had the ice on for far longer than the recommended 15-minutes, which probably had something to do with the lack of pain in his back.

He stood up and winced as his back lightly protested the sudden movement. "Guess it's not as fine as I thought it was," he muttered.

1,825 mornings with the same routine. Though leaving the WWE was a high price to pay, he was starting to think it might be worth it.

XXXXX

"It's open!" Jeff called when he heard the knock on the door to his hotel room. He had called Matt a few minutes earlier and, sure enough, it was his brother who entered the room. "What's all that?" he asked, motioning to the pile of papers in Matt's hands.

"My notes on everything that I've found out over the past few weeks," Matt said. "I'm assuming that's what you wanted to talk to me about?"

Jeff shook his head. In all honesty, he had completely forgotten that Matt still needed to explain everything about Jericho, Mickie, and the others. "No, actually that wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

Matt looked surprised. "What did you want to tell me, then?"

Jeff hesitated for a moment before saying, "Maybe you should sit down."

"You aren't pregnant, are you?" Matt joked as he sat down in the empty chair across from his brother.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Hold off on the corny jokes for just five minutes, Matt, please?"

The grin faded from Matt's face and he leaned forward, carefully watching his brother. "Is everything okay, Jeff?"

"No." The answer was quiet, almost whispered. "I… It's my back, Matt. It's never been the same, not since the surgery."

And Jeff told his brother everything. He came clean about the back pain that had started out as the usual aches after the surgery and progressed to the throbbing pain that he had felt for awhile after his first attack. He explained how after the second attack, which had been aimed at the site of his original injury, he could barely crawl up to his house. He told him what Dr. Carleson had said about the possibility of retiring, and about the pain he had been in when he first woke up.

There was silence in the hotel room when he was done speaking. Jeff was looking anywhere but at Matt, who was just in complete shock. "You need to come up with some sort of plan," Matt finally said quietly.

Jeff shook his head and said, "I already know what I'm going to do."

"What?"

Jeff took a deep breath. "Matt… I think it's time for me to hang up the boots."

Matt said nothing. Once Jeff had started explaining everything he knew that it wouldn't end well, but when he had first walked in he never thought that Jeff would tell him that he was retiring.

What was he supposed to say? It seemed Jeff had already made up his mind. Did he sit back and go along with the plan? Was he supposed to argue with his brother and try to convince him to change his mind? Matt didn't want him to stop wrestling, but he understood why Jeff decided to. In fact, if Jeff had told him that he _wasn't_ going to stop wrestling he would have already been protesting.

"Are you sure about this?" he finally asked.

Jeff nodded. "I've debated this for hours before I finally called you," he said quietly. "I want to keep wrestling so badly, you have no idea, but once Vince got wind of the condition my back is in I wouldn't be able to anyway."

"Who said he'd have to find out?"

"Matt, it took me about an hour this morning to be able to walk around without being in pain," Jeff said. "That means that every morning for the next however many years I'd have to remember to wake up early enough so I can get used to the pain before I can fly out or do an autograph session or anything. I'd be in agony after any match I had, which would be obvious to anyone in the locker room. Vince would definitely get word of this at some point."

Matt sighed. He knew Jeff was right, he knew that he really shouldn't try to change his brother's mind, but he hated that it had to come to this. "I'm not going to be able to change your mind, am I?"

"Probably not," Jeff said. "You're welcome to try, though. Hell, feel free to start shouting if you want or something. It'd be nice to hear what an idiot I am for letting it get to this point."

"You're not an idiot," Matt said. "You can't honestly think that this was your fault! I mean, sure, maybe you could've gone a bit easier on your back, but someone in this company has it out for you. They would've done something else and the result probably would've been the same."

Jeff sighed. "You're probably right, as usual," he muttered. "I just hate that that asshole won. He's finally managed to destroy my career and drive me away from the WWE."

"Not necessarily…" Matt said slowly.

"What are you talking about?"

"You have to retire, okay, but nobody said that you had to actually leave," Matt pointed out.

Jeff frowned. "Matt, if I can't wrestle why the hell would Vince let me stick around?"

"Because he knows that he'll make more money if you're still in the WWE, even if you don't wrestle," Matt said. "Stick around as my manager or something, or even just to continue an on-screen hunt for the bastard that did this. In a couple of months or something if you're getting bored you can just move onto something else."

"So it's losing without actually having to lose?" Jeff joked.

Matt laughed. "Or winning without actually winning."

Jeff chuckled and stretched, wincing as his back cracked loudly. "So, about those notes of yours…" he said, motioning to the long-forgotten papers in Matt's hands.

Matt grinned, but started passing the papers over to Jeff, explaining what he had found out about Mickie, Jericho, Miz, and Hunter. As he did so, he couldn't help but marvel at the fact that, despite how abnormal the situation should be, he almost felt like everything was back to normal.

**A/N: -runs and hides- Hey, hey, remember that I need to LIVE in order to finish this up! No killing the author until after the story's done!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**A/N: Well, here it is. It's been a long ride but we're at the end of the series. I want to thank all of my reviewers, especially .- whose been here since the beginning (or close to the beginning anyway)! Without further ado, I present the final chapter of Dying Day, Dying Wish. Enjoy!**

Jeff was silent as he waited backstage for his turn to go out to the ring. Although the show was booked solid, Vince had managed to find them ten minutes at the end of Raw. He insisted that since it would be Jeff's first night back on Raw since his attack it only made sense for him to be the main attraction of the night.

Jeff couldn't help but find it ironic that his first night back would also be his last.

He had accepted what he needed to do, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. He watched coworkers walk by, chatting and laughing, and felt jealous and angry of what they had. They had the rest of their careers ahead of them, years of wrestling and traveling and late nights spent at bars. Even if Vince let Jeff stay as Matt's manager, he'd never really fit in with the rest of the guys again.

"You okay?" Matt murmured as he came to stand beside his brother.

Jeff shook his head. "No, I'm not."

"You don't have to do this, you know."

"Yes, I do," Jeff insisted. "Matt, I don't want to get through a match and find out that I can't walk anymore. I don't want to stop wrestling, but some things are more important than that one, last Swanton."

Matt smiled bitterly. After months of denial, mixed priorities, and anger Jeff had finally realized what was most important and accepted it. "I just wish it didn't have to be this way."

"So do I," Jeff said quietly.

"Hey, Jeff, great to see you back!" Kennedy said. "Look forward to having another match with you."

Jeff forced a grin. "Sounds good, Ken," he said as Kennedy laughed and kept walking down the hall.

"You aren't going to tell him?" Matt asked softly.

"Why bother? He'll find out soon enough anyway," Jeff said. "Besides, this way I don't have to deal with talking to anyone about it before I actually announce it."

Jeff reached up to brush a strand of hair out of his eyes, allowing Matt a glimpse of what looked like red and orange marker on Jeff's arm. "What's that?" he asked as he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt. On his arm was what looked like a flame pattern drawn with Sharpies. "Jeff…"

"It's not what you think," Jeff muttered as he snatched his arm back and rolled down his sleeve. "It's not the blues and greens that it was before."

"Then why do you have it?"

Jeff hesitated for a moment before saying, "Its fire. It's cleansing. Y'know, the whole rising from the ashes symbolism and crap."

Matt nodded slowly. It was Jeff's way of remembering to move past his retirement and focus on the next stage in his life. "It fits," he finally said.

"Matt, Jeff, you guys are on in five."

Jeff nodded and the two stood in comfortable silence, neither of them feeling ill at ease in the other's company. Whether intentionally or not, they had settled back into their old routines. Finally, after weeks of struggle, they had moved past everything that had happened.

Jeff's music hit, shattering the calm atmosphere. Jeff took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. "Here goes nothing," he murmured before walking out into the arena.

Jeff paused at the top of the ramp, looking out over the crowd. It suddenly struck him that he would walk down to that ring as a wrestler and walk back as nothing, but no one knew except him and Matt. Two words and his entire life would be changed, but the fans were acting like nothing was different. How could everything be so _normal_?

"Jeff? You alright?" Matt asked, just loud enough for his brother to hear.

Jeff started slightly; he hadn't heard Matt come up behind him. "I'm fine." They both knew that was a lie, but they also knew that Jeff didn't have any other choice but to follow through with this.

They made their way slowly to the ring, taking their time to interact with their fans. Matt kept a close eye on his brother, but Jeff was doing a good job of pretending to be fine. They rolled into the ring and Jeff had just grabbed the mic that was passed to him when a "Hardy!" chant started up.

Jeff did his best to block out the noise, knowing that if he started listening to the chant it would only make it that much harder to continue. "As you know, two weeks ago I was attacked at the end of the Raw show," he began. "I was hit in the back of my head and had a severe concussion." _Can't forget to play up the storyline a bit…_ "Luckily, they caught the man who attacked me, but that wasn't the end of the story.

"Last week, after Raw again, I went outside to close my car windows and again was attacked from behind. This time, they hit me in the back. The next day I went to my doctor to see what sort of damage was done and he gave me something to think about."

Jeff sighed. That was the easy part. "I've had a good career," he said. "I had an amazing run as a tag team with my brother and an even better time as single's competitor. I may not have accomplished every single thing I've wanted to do, but I've done so much more than I had ever dared to dream of when I was first starting out.

"I'm not saying that it was all good. I had my rough moments, my dark times. I left WWE for a number of years and only came back a couple of years ago. I've been suspended, I've failed at my goals a number of times, but I've never let anything hold me down."

He could see a couple of people who had started to pick up on where he was going, but he continued his speech anyway. "I've never let anything hold me down until I injured my back. From there it's been one bad thing after another. Surgery, my moves being banned, feuding with Matt, and now these attacks on me- nothing had gone my way.

"Most people don't know, or remember, the sheer amount of damage my back was in before my surgery. Even after my surgery I was supposed to take it easy and be extra careful of my back. With everything that's been going on, that hasn't happened. And now I'm paying the price.

"I hadn't thought about my doctor's advice, not until I woke up yesterday after a house show and couldn't move because my back was in so much pain. I realized then that I couldn't keep doing what I had been doing. I agonized over this for hours, but I finally had to admit that I had no other choice."

Most people had guessed what was going on by that point and many of them seemed to be in disbelief. Jeff looked out at the crowd, knowing that these were his final moments as a wrestler. "I'm retiring." The crowd began shouting, but Jeff did his best to speak over them. "I had no other choice. If I kept wrestling my back would only get worse and worse. As it is, I'm going to be in pain for the rest of my life. I'd love to stay as Matt's manager, if Vince would let me, but my wrestling days are over."

The shouts from the crowd were drowned out by the sound of Vince's music starting up. Matt and Jeff turned towards the ramp as Mr. McMahon began walking down to the ring. "Jeff, are you sure about this?" he asked as he climbed into the ring. "Once you walk out of here, this is final. You can't turn back."

The three of them all knew that what he was really asking was, "Is this legit or for a storyline?"

"I'm sure," Jeff said, ignoring the cries from the crowd. "Honestly, completely, one hundred percent, _legitimately_, serious."

Vince nodded slowly. "I don't know what to say. This was certainly unexpected, but everyone retires eventually. Matt, I will expect you here next week as usual. Jeff… I'll let you know whether you're needed."

Jeff frowned as Vince turned to leave the ring. Why had he seemed so happy if he was about to lose one of his most popular superstars? Something suddenly clicked and, before he lost his chance, Jeff blurted out, "Did you plan it all or were you making it up as you went along?"

Vince stopped and turned back around. "What the hell are you talking about?" The fear the briefly crossed his face was visible to everyone in the ring.

"I'm talking about all the shit that's happened to me since I got injured," Jeff said. "Do you want to hear how I think it happened?" Vince said nothing, so Jeff continued.

"You've never been huge fans of Matt and I. The only real reason that we've gotten to where we are today is because you know that the fans love us, which makes you richer. You were probably a bit happy when I got injured, and I'm willing to bet that you gave Matt all that time off just so you wouldn't have to deal with him either.

"When I injured my back even more, you started to think about what would happen if I didn't return. And you were looking forward to that phone call, weren't you? A chance to get rid of the troublesome Jeff Hardy without having to fire me. Instead, Matt calls to tell you that I healed up perfectly fine and as long as I didn't hurt my back too much I could wrestle for years.

"Was that what gave you the idea to ban my moves, Vince? I'm willing to bet it was. You pinned in on Mickie and Jericho and the others so that no one could blame you. You're ultimate goal was to have me turn on Matt to draw viewers, and I played right into it. You were probably hoping that would continue for awhile, but it didn't.

"You were pissed, weren't you? Especially since we were doing our own thing. You needed us back under control and fast. So what do you do? You hired those two people to attack me in hopes that it would be reflected back to a feud on Raw, one that you could control every step of the way. Not to mention it could always be a way to get rid of me when you wanted to."

"You're crazy," Vince snarled. "I should just fire you right now."

Jeff chuckled humorlessly, his eyes blazing with anger. "Good luck with that."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vince asked for the second time that night.

Jeff motioned towards the top of the ramp and Vince slowly turned around, his eyes widening with shock and fear when he saw nearly the entire roster standing there. In front were Mickie, Jericho, Hunter, and Miz, looking absolutely livid. "You try to fire me and I'm willing to be that more than a couple of people will be quitting," Jeff said. "The secret's out and you're going to have to deal with it. Maybe you should start with those four in the front, the ones that you threatened into doing your dirty work for you?"

Vince was speechless, clearly struggling to gain control of the situation. "This isn't over, Hardy!" he finally snarled. He threw down the mic and started to walk up the ramp, before realizing that four of the people he had wronged were in his way. He looked around for a moment, before climbing off the ramp and exiting around the side of the stage.

Back in the ring Matt was in shock. He had spent weeks trying to figure this out. How did Jeff manage to piece everything together so fast? "How did you know?" he asked his brother, just loud enough for Jeff to hear.

"I didn't," Jeff said. "Not for sure, anyway. I had a hunch and ran with it."

Matt laughed. "Seemed like you got lucky then," he teased.

Jeff laughed as well and the two of them watched their coworkers at the top of the ramp. A couple of them had already headed backstage, but most of them were still discussing what had just taken place. The four in front were glaring in the direction Vince disappeared and Hunter at least looked to be on the verge of following him.

"So where do we go from here?" Jeff finally asked once the wrestlers had started to clear away.

Matt shrugged. "Dunno," he said. "But whatever happens next it's sure to be one hell of a ride."

**A/N: And we're done! Or are we… Limited offer for you guys! I know there are some scenes I want to write that take place after this, but not enough for another story. Give me ideas for what YOU want to see and I'll compile some of them into a collection of oneshots. Thanks again to all my lovely readers and I hope you've enjoyed the series!**


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